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Did I just lose todays work?


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Hi!

This morning I continued working on a project (in Designer for iPad) I started yesterday. Now, four or five hours later, I can’t find the project. I was in a couple of other apps briefly and when I got back, the project was no longer open and I cant find it in the projects list. The recent files list in Files doesn’t have it either. Other things that I have done today are still there.

Does this mean all my work is lost? I have never experienced anything like this before despite having worked on hundreds of projects in Designer.

Best regards, Niklas

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Hi Niklas,

I've never heard of something like this being reported before. Its worth noting that when you have a file open in the app it isn't saved into the app. The files still need to be saved to an alternate location. If you closed the file in the app before saving then unfortunately this file is likely to be lost.

Thanks

C

Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP.

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@Callum, thanks for your answer! :) 

I “never” close files. Below are a few follow-up questions for anyone who knows:

  1. What does the autosave feature in Designer do?
  2. And what about the one day old version of the file that I found when my work disappeared, shouldn’t that contain all the changes I made that were lost? It is the same file but at a 24 hour earlier stage.
  3. The default save location setting, what is that for? Doesn’t my new files get saved there?
  4. Why aren’t files automatically saved into the app? Is that some kind of feature that I don’t understand? I haven’t saved documents in years. It’s taken care of in the background and I never have to think about it. It’s one of the fantastic things about the iPad and most computers. There is almost no risk of losing work nowadays. Until now, apparently.

Best regards, Niklas

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/22/2020 at 8:17 PM, Niklas Vackerdag said:

Below are a few follow-up questions for anyone who knows:

Hi Niklas,

1. As far as I can work out the autosave feature (default is 300 (seconds) so 5 minutes) should update the copy retained in the apps sandbox. This is not ideal as you can’t access this file with any sort of file manager to copy or backup the file. If you switch apps and iOS reallocated ram to the new app, the edits held in ram by affinity may be lost. 

2. When you create a new file, it exists only in the apps sandboxed memory area. You can only access it with affinity app. If you Close it, the file no longer exists anywhere else. iPads have limited ram and iOS will reallocate ram to apps that have screen focus meaning 'unsaved' edits in other apps may be lost.

3 & 4. You must use the Save command in 3bar menu on Home Screen in order to create a 'real' file (.afdesign). This 'real' file is placed in the ‘Default' storage folder location. (I would like to see this happen automatically whenever a file is started, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen that way).  Edits are made using the sandboxed version and are saved back to the sandboxed version by the default save kicking after 5 minutes,  or by returning to the Home Screen.

If you close the file, you can use Import From Cloud to create a copy of the file held in default folder, or use Open From Cloud to reopen the existing file.

If you work for long periods or tend to swap apps a lot, get into the habit of using the Save command in the Workscreen Document menu. Important files can be accessed in the default save folder and copied to a backup folder on your device, external storage or network drive. If for some reason your file gets corrupted you can simply reload the copy/backup.

Hope this helps clarify how the app works in iOS.

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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Thank you for explaining how Affinity works, DM1! 🙂 

It's been very long since I used an app that needs a manual save to make it recoverable. It almost feels like having an unchecked checkbox hidden in the app settings saying ”I don't want to lose my newly created work”. To me, creating a file in an app 100 percent of the time means I want to keep it until I manually delete it. I guess my work-losing experience in Designer isn't unique. 😐

Have I understood this right:

If I create a new document/file in Designer and save it with the ”Save” option, I normally will not lose more work than what I have set the autosave timer to (in my case 30 seconds)?

My default save location is in iCloud Drive so it should be reasonably safe.

Thanks again!

Best regards, Niklas 

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11 hours ago, Niklas Vackerdag said:

To me, creating a file in an app 100 percent of the time means I want to keep it until I manually delete it. 

Technically Designer does do this. The app stores your file in a sandboxed area that cannot be accessed other than the Home Screen where the project icons appear. They will stay there until you delete (Close) them. Unfortunately glitches do occur (the app still has many bugs) and from time to time these sandboxed files can end up corrupted or inaccessible. Bad news as your work is then lost. No issue, just load the latest backup. Oh, there is no backup available in this mode (unless you have used Apples backup feature to backup your iPad). Not practical on a minute by minute basis. So the answer a workflow involving  manually saving and backing up the .afdesign folder regularly.

11 hours ago, Niklas Vackerdag said:

If I create a new document/file in Designer and save it with the ”Save” option, I normally will not lose more work than what I have set the autosave timer to (in my case 30 seconds)?

Resetting the autosave to 30 secs will definitely update the sandboxed version regularly.
To be honest I don’t know if it also updates the real file in iCloud or whether that occurs only when you use Document Save menu or return to Home Screen. It should be easy to check by shifting app focus to Files app and looking at the file in iCloud Designer folder to see if the changes have appeared.

After testing this I can confirm that the real file stored in the Designer folder will NOT update until you physically Save either from the Document menu Save option or the Home Screen 3bar Menu Save option. 

Hope that helps.

 

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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  • 5 months later...
On 11/17/2020 at 2:36 PM, DM1 said:

Oh, there is no backup available in this mode (unless you have used Apples backup feature to backup your iPad). Not practical on a minute by minute basis. So the answer a workflow involving  manually saving and backing up the .afdesign folder regularly.

Hate to bring up an old issue... but I've run into this issue as well... basically AD crashed and all my work for that project is gone.  I do have iCloud Backup enabled, but have no clue on how to actually restore a backup of Affinity Designer data.  This internal storage with lack of external automatic save seems like a piss poor solution.

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13 minutes ago, jimklo said:

but have no clue on how to actually restore a backup of Affinity Designer data.

When you 'save' a file (project), an .afdesign file is created in the default save location. The file can be found in the Affinity Designer folder. Just use the 'Open from Cloud' option in Designer then navigate to the folder. Select your file and open it.

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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11 hours ago, DM1 said:

When you 'save' a file (project), an .afdesign file is created in the default save location. The file can be found in the Affinity Designer folder. Just use the 'Open from Cloud' option in Designer then navigate to the folder. Select your file and open it.

Well that’s not gonna happen because some developer thought it was a bright idea to auto save to an internal sandbox. It’s 2021 - apps auto save in user accessible locations. I shouldn’t have to perform manual backups every 5 minutes. 

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2 hours ago, jimklo said:

I shouldn’t have to perform manual backups every 5 minutes. 

I fully agree, we shouldn’t. However, let’s be honest, it’s neither difficult nor time consuming to tap 'Document menu/Save' tab every once in a while. Particularly if you have been 'burned' by a corrupted sandbox file.  It’s a workaround until Affinity pull their finger out and fix this. 🙂

M1 IPad Air 10.9/256GB   lpadOS 17.1.1 Apple Pencil (2nd gen).
Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Affinity Design 1.10.5 
Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Photo 2 and betas.

Official Online iPad Help documents (multi-lingual) here: https://affinity.https://affinity.help/ 

 

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